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    Vengeance
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    Vengeance
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    Vengeance
    Ebook606 pages10 hours

    Vengeance

    By George Jonas

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were murdered at the Munich Olympics. This is the chilling account of how they were avenged. First published in 1984, George Jonas’s #1 bestseller Vengeance has become a real-life espionage classic. The story of five ordinary young Israelis whose mission it was to hunt down and kill the terrorists responsible for the massacre of eleven athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Vengeance plunges the reader into an explosive world of terrorism and political murder.

    This is an account of what happened when five idealistic volunteer agents were sent to track down and kill the central figures of the PLO's Munich operation, told from the point of view of "Avner," a member of the team chosen to avenge the monstrous crime, and the first Mossad agent to come out of "deep cover" to tell his story. His description of the mechanics, the horrors and the unrelenting suspense of this mission surpasses the wildest fabrications of today’s blockbuster movies and bestselling crime thrillers. As these men moved from country to country, changing identities and risking their lives, they soon became targets themselves—tracked, hunted and even killed.

    A profoundly human story, Vengeance explores firsthand the revulsion and doubt that came to torment the Israeli agents, inexorably changing their view of the mission and ultimately how they felt about themselves. It is also a stark examination of the timeless concerns that continue to plague our consciousness today: the nature of good and evil, and the difference between right and wrong.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 4, 2012
    ISBN9781443403573
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    Vengeance
    Author

    George Jonas

    George Jonas was born in Hungary and immigrated to Canada in 1956, where he became a script editor, and later TV producer, for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1985 he has been a freelance journalist, writer and TV producer based in Toronto. He is the author of fourteen books, including By Persons Unknown (with Barbara Amiel), a bestseller and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe award for non-fiction. He is a contributor to many Canadian periodicals and newspapers, and currently writes a weekly column for the National Post.

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    Reviews for Vengeance

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Exploring the theme of vengeance, this anthology is a very readable collection offering variety in character, setting and interpretation of the theme. While I read it easily in one setting, the format also allows the reader to dip in and out on a casual basis, most of the stories are less than ten pages in length so they are ideal to provide entertainment during a short commute or lunch break.In his introduction editor Lee Child, who also contributes an original story, explains how he chose ten best selling authors including Karin Slaughter, Dennis Lehane, Alafair Burke and Michael Connelly, to complement the ten winning submissions of the Mystery Writers of America competition.Of the 21 stories in Vengeance none really stood out for me but overall it is a solidly entertaining collection.Unusually men of the cloth are a common protagonist in this collection, with In Persona Christi by Orest Stelmach, C.E. Lawrence’s Silent Justice and Zoe Sharp’s Lost and Found taking matters of justice into their own hands.I enjoyed the story of Rukshana’s revenge on her boss in The Hotline by Dreda Say Mitchell and cheered for Beth in The Final Ballot by Brendan DuBois.Blood and Sunshine by Adam Meyer gave me chills as did the Unremarkable Heart by Karin Slaughter.Michel Connelly’s Harry Bosch makes an appearance in A Fine Mist of Blood, catching a vigilante lawyer who had escaped detection for almost a decade.Though it is quite a bleak expose of human nature, fans of crime, mystery and suspense should enjoy Vengeance, as I did, for its concise storytelling and murderous twists.
    • 4/5
      A well written book that is by no means my favorite. I didn't enjoy is all that much simply because it took a long time to read. But this was written very well.
    • 5/5
      The movie 'Munich' - which I haven't seen - is apparently based on this
    • 5/5
      I think I owe Steven Spielberg a half-apology for bashing Munich two years ago. I still have objections toward his portrayal of the Mossad agents in the film. However, I was wrong when I accused him for disrespecting the Mossad (and the Israeli government, in that case), because they selected "Avner" (not a real name, obviously) who was an inexperienced junior field agent to lead a five-man team to avenge the deaths of eleven Israeli athletes massacred by the Black September terrorists during the Munich Olympics in 1972.Apparently, that WAS the truth. Of course, Avner used to serve as a commando in one of Israelis’ many special forces, but being an intel proves to be much different than being a mere soldier.This book is written using a first-hand account notably from Avner himself. The description provided on the team’s activities was a horrifying/mesmerizing/heart-wrenching/mind-boggling one. The author admitted that certain details were incapable of being verified and he had to alter some of them (esp. names) to protect his sources.In my opinion, the author had done a great job as a biographer/researcher. He clearly separated his own opinion from other people’s. The prologue about the Munich massacre…OMG. It made me shuddered. I just can’t believe the Germans were so stupid – whilst they wanted to erase their bad image after more than 30 years anniversary of Nazi’s atrocities – they acted carelessly in dealing with the hostage situation. Thank goodness finally they came to their senses, admitted they did not have a special unit for counter-terrorism by then, so they asked Israel to help them establishing the GSG-9.Anyway, the following chapters told about the journey of Avner’s team, mostly in European countries (Rome, Paris, Athens, etc) and also Beirut and Cyprus. His team consisted of five very different individuals: the ex-commando, youngest-of-the-lot Avner (team leader), the quiet, laid-back Hans (document forger), the eccentric Robert (bomb maker), the happy-go-lucky, practical Steve (driver, route strategist), and last but not least, the oldest, most experienced, calm, cautious Carl.Avner was asked to do the assignment (i.e. assassinating 11 top terrorists responsible for the Munich massacre) by Golda Meir herself in her apartment. Well, who could refuse that great woman’s request? Not Avner of course. There's a catch. Mossad and the government would not acknowledge them and their operation.Mossad was genious, gotta admit that. They used one team as a self-contained unit, supplied with nothing but a hit-list and funds, to make its own way in the Europe underground in exactly the same way as any other small terrorist cell. To their credit, the Mossad also strongly prohibited collateral damage. They’d rather have the team to tail a person for months rather than kill him at the spot but with a non-combatant also killed.The narrations for each mission blew me away. Amazingly real and meticulous. The methods used were varied, from simple assassination using Berettas, or putting six tailor-made, localized bombs under the target’s bed. I was amused by the fact that Avner’s team “outsourced” some of the supporting works to a French privateer group called “Le Group” (not a real name again, I assume). Well, well, living underground is expensive and difficult. One always needs supports for safe houses, logistics, weapon materials, surveillance, etc.Another interesting aspect in this book is the human-interest issue. Two years living underground, with rare visits to their families, would definitely take its toll on the team members, including Avner. He's a sabra (an Israeli who is born in Israel), but he never really felt home in Israel. This is where Spielberg was wrong. In Munich, Eric Bana played a more frustrated Avner (close to going loco, I daresay). This book, which was supposed to be Spielberg’s main source, told otherwise. Yes, Avner was having reasonable and not-baseless paranoia, but he neither regretted doing the mission, or whether it made any difference (which it did) nor completely blaming the Mossad’s ruthless and cynical actions for everything bad that happened.In general, I think counter-terrorism will always be controversial. However, counter-terrorism could be classified as an act or war, and terrorism as a war crime. The maps of the world are drawn in blood. That's the sad fact. Le monde, c'est la f*cking guerre, no?
    • 4/5
      A fine military thriller that I've had in my collection for a long time. It was the basis for the movie "Sword of Gideon", which was later needlessly reworked into a remake by Spielberg. Skip "Munich" and read the book, or at least rent "Sword of Gideon"
    • 4/5
      The thrills, mystery, backstabbing reads like a Hollywood movie. Though the author makes clear of his position in this whole thing, the story does have an unbiased views (on certain matters at least). However, the purpose of this book is not about who's wrong or right. I feel it's more about one man's take on the whole issue of whether counter-terrorism, in whatever from, really works or not and whether it's worth it at all.Quite easy to read considering that I don't know much about the Israel-Palestine fued and I don't read a lot of non-fictions.
    • 5/5
      An excellent account of the Israeli government’s revenge for the 1972 murders of their Olympic athletes. If you have seen the Spielberg movie, you should read this book.